I.

Introduction

Appeasement, term used to describe the response of the British and French governments to the expansionist activities of Germany and Italy under Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in the 1930s in attempting to achieve a negotiated settlement. Politicians use the term today to denote a policy of weakness and capitulation. Traditionally, appeasement was regarded as a naive policy that gave the democracies the appearance of weakness and encouraged the Fascist powers in their attempts to construct empires. Its failure in preventing World War II coloured the diplomacy of the immediate post-war period and the decline into Cold War, and continues to impact upon the foreign policies of western nations today. However, appeasement was a policy that emerged from the economic, imperial, military, and political priorities of the inter-war period. It reflected willingness, especially on the part of Britain, to reappraise the Treaty of Versailles, which was increasingly recognized as being unfair.